


Color theory

by Glowcloudwasright



Category: Lumberjanes
Genre: Color Theory, Color simbolism, F/F, Gen, Ripley wonders about the meaning of some colors and why they are the way they are, and so she notices some similar patterns on her freinds, i guess, very wise smol ripley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:42:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24658555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glowcloudwasright/pseuds/Glowcloudwasright
Summary: Ripley loves color, but there are some things about them she doesn't quite understand yet.
Relationships: April/Jo (Lumberjanes), Mal/Molly (Lumberjanes)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Color theory

**Author's Note:**

> Idk I just wanted to play around with color theory and the meaning of color in psychology while also writing about my favorite dorks.

If Ripley’s world was one thing, it was colorful; even sparkly if she felt like it that day. She loved the feeling of paint on her fingers, decorating things with new colorful details and watching her drawings come to life before her eyes with color palettes of her own invention. She didn’t have a particularly favorite color though, and her answer to that question changed every time someone asked her. Consequently, she end up with an array of friendship bracelets from the rest of the Roanokes in every color string the crafts hall had available.

And Ripley loved that.

She truly loved every single color in the rainbow and beyond it, because every color was special in its own way. 

She had read before about colors having different meanings, but they were often discordant and that didn’t make much sense to Ripley. For example, how could green be the color of envy and of nature? Why was red the color of wrath but also love?

She often thought that it was all made up by bored people and she should assign her own meaning to the colors she so dearly loved.

But then again, maybe the colors had already assigned themselves with meaning. Maybe people should be more preoccupied with figuring out what the colors wanted to tell them instead of trying to impose ridiculous meanings to them like yellow being the color to make you hungry or blue being the color that makes you want to go to sleep.

She had read those meanings in a boring magazine her mom had lying around, and she had hated it. Who were those people to tell her that she couldn’t paint her room walls yellow because it was too bright?

Ripley wasn’t sure why she was so caught up on that theme, especially not that day. But then again, it was raining outside, so every camper was confined to their cabins for the evening and boredom was starting to get the best of her.

From her spot on the floor near her bunk Ripley lifted her gaze up from her sketch book and saw what her cabin mates were up to.

Mal was strumming her guitar gently, her gaze focused on the strings and her tongue sticking out slightly as if to focus on getting the pattern right. Molly was sitting next to her, back pressed against the wall and petting Bubbles peacefully, both of them letting themselves get carried away by Mal’s melody with an absent minded smile.

Jen sat silently, focused on her knitting project, on the small table in which they played board games or held impromptu meetings about who was on cabin cleaning duty that week or who had left the window open the night before, therefore causing forest spirits to enter the cabin, for the third time that summer actually.

April was lying on her bunk, scribbling something in her diary with her pink gel pen. Ripley could almost see the precise movement with which April dotted her i’s with hearts. Jo was lying on the same bunk, but opposite to April, too lost in her current book to notice anything around her. Her concentration was only broken from time to time, when both she and April would lift their eyes up from their respective activities to exchange a quick smile.

Ripley’s attention shifted to the title of the book Jo was reading, something along the lines of “color theory”, in a really big boxy font, black letters on top of a white background. Why was a book about colors so dull looking? Well, her abuela taught her to not judge a book by its cover, so she let it slip.

“Hey, Jo?” She called for the older girl, her head titled in curiosity.

“Mhm?” Jo answered, barely looking up from her book but a sweet smile on her face nonetheless.

“What is your book about?” She finally asked. Jo was very smart, so maybe she would have some answers about her doubts with color.

“Oh.” Jo seemed surprised about Ripley asking her that. “It’s about color theory, like the types of colors that exist, and about mixing and the visual effects of a specific color combination. It’s really interesting.”

“Can you tell me more about it?”

“Sure, come here.” Jo scooted over to make room for Ripley to sit next to her.

“This is called a chromatic circle.” Jo pointed her to a very colorful circle on the page. Maybe the book really was colorful after all.

The minutes passed and Jo told Ripley about how color was the reflection of certain lengths of light or whatever, she had tried to pay attention to the sciency part, but her mind sort of drift away with all the images on the page. There was also something about the color magenta not actually existing, but that was just too crazy, even for Ripley.

She had been more interested in the different ways of classifying color there was, besides the primary and secondary colors she already knew.

“But how do you know two colors go well together?” Ripley asked, not quite set on the definitiveness with which the book explained this part.

“Well, by definition, complementary colors go well together because they have opposing hues.” Jo said, but Ripley wasn’t quite convinced yet.

“That green and pink is really ugly though.” Ripley pointed to a diagram with different color circles on top of their complementary color square.

Jo let out a laugh, agreeing that it was, in fact, an ugly combination of colors.

“Maybe is a matter of opinion.” Commented April from the other side of the bed, looking up from her diary.

Well, that made more sense. It was how like she really liked matching her orange shirt with her red shorts but her sister preferred to wear her orange clothes with black because it reminded her of Halloween.

But still, if people assigned meaning to colors, this whole set of rules to match and mismatch them could have something to do with it. 

She tried really hard to look around the cabin to find two complementary colors that went well together. It was a little hard, considering most things inside the cabin were some shade of brown, but her eyes finally set on the contrast between Mal’s red flannel and Molly’s green shirt. Those two were complementary colors, almost the exact same shades the book described even.

Mal and Molly were now sitting next to each other, Mal’s guitar long forgotten as they laughed about something secret between the two. Their shoulders were touching, as they usually were, so it was easier to see how the colors looked together.

Ripley thought that the rule of complementary colors made a lot of sense, Molly and Mal really went great together, even if they were opposites. Molly really was like the color green. She was calm, thoughtful and really smart. It’s not like Mal wasn’t those things, but she was louder, bolder, like the color red. Yes, Ripley thought they were a great match. Not only the colors, but her friends.

“There are also analogous colors, which are the colors who are next to each other on the chromatic circle.” Jo continued her explanation.

“Oh, so it’s like they’re neighbors.” Ripley pointed out.

Jo simply smiled, not noticing her gaze had drift off to April at Ripley’s words.

“Yeah, sort of like that.” Her focus went back to the page. “They go well together because they have a base color in common. They also have a tertiary color that complements them.”

Ripley thought this rule also made a lot of sense, but the color combinations that exemplified it were sort of apparent, like it was too obvious that these colors went well together.

She then tried to look around the cabin for two analogous colors that matched the way the book described.

It was a long search, but Ripley’s eyes stopped at the answer right in front of her, at Jo and April’s matching socks. Jo had purple, or rather violet socks on, which Ripley thought matched April’s pink ones.

It also helped the comparison that their legs were almost laying on top of each other, a bit of a tangled mess of limbs, even if Ripley wasn’t quite sure why because the bed was big enough for them to stretch their legs all the way to each side. But Jo and April always seemed to want to be close to each other. 

Ripley thought this rule also made sense since April and Jo also seemed to fit well together. They had been best friends since forever after all. They liked the same stuff and shared a love for adventure and knowledge. Even if Jo was a bit more serious and calculating, more logical, like the dark violet of her socks, April complimented her being a bit flashier, a bit softer and emotional, like the shade of pink on her own socks. Yes, Ripley thought they were also a great match.

Jo was still talking about color theory, and Ripley listened pensively to every word. Maybe all that crazy talk about colors having meaning was true after all, she had the real life examples right there with her in her cabin. Ripley then wondered what other colors went well together and why. Tomorrow she would go out and find them, but for today she was starting to feel a little sleepy. Hunting for colors was really exhausting.


End file.
